Actions and Consequence
by Trickett
Summary: The events that took place within the personal lives of Gabriel Reyes and Moira O'Deorain right before the mission in Venice and their impact on the choices that followed. to be deleted, added to "An Explanation".


"Are you absolutely certain you succeeded?" he asked, his voice as monotone as ever, never one to give away anything.

"Of course it was a success and if it wasn't, he is more than willing to subject himself to more testing if it means saving what he loves." Moira chuckled, giving a hushed coo to the sleepy toddler she was rocking in her arms.

"What exactly does the Commander love so much he's willing to become one of your test subject?"

"What every man is willing to sacrifice for; his wife and children."

"Why not simply control his wife as you did with LaCroix?"

"This is different. Much different." she sighed, "This is the best course, trust me."

"We will see the fruit of your labours soon enough then."

"We-"

"Moira." A weak voice growled out to her.

"Riggy? Go back to bed, love."

"What did you do to my husband?" Moira turned to face the woman behind her, the vibrant and fiery woman that usually made up her personality was absent, a husk was what stood before her. Black shadows surrounded her lidded eyes, cheeks sunken in, hair unkempt and pulled into a wild mess of a bun. It physically pained Moira to see such a strong woman she's grown her whole life with to be suffering so much.

"Nothing, love. Nothing at all."

"You just said he was willing to subject himself to more testing! What did you two do?" Moira let out a long sigh and walked the toddler to her crib, placing her gently in its center.

"We'll talk later." Moira stated plainly.

"Oh, yes." he laughed, "We definitely will." she cut the connection on her phone and turned back around to see her sister clinging to her hounds to help keep her standing.

"How far did you think you'd get before we finally noticed you weren't just 'feeling a little under the weather'? How long did you intend on not telling Gabriel and I?" Marigold stumbled, Valjean catching her on his back, Moira bent over and pulled her upright, using herself as a support for her sister.

"What did ya' do to my husband, Mo?" Sad sickly eyes looked up at her desperately, Moira gave her a wide smile to comfort her as she led her to the couch.

"The Soldier Enhancement Project makes him immune. Nothing I've done will make him sick like you are now, but will give us a chance to save you." Moira wasn't lying, Gabriel was under the impression that all they were doing was finding a cure for his wife, that was enough for him to agree.

"When and how did you find out?... Only Angela knew..."

"A year ago Gabriel called after finding a concerning amount of blood in the sink, we confronted Angela the next day."

"Why..."

"We love you, Marigold. You're all I have left, and you mean the world to Gabe and your children. Gabe and I are willing to do anything to save you, for you, for them, for ourselves." Moira took her sister into her arms, holding the smaller woman tight against her chest.

"I love you both, so much." Marigold had a small well of tears forming, but they didn't fall, "Don't let him do anything crazy, and don't encourage him to." she gave a small chuckle but both knew how serious she was about that. Gabriel would do anything, and Moira wouldn't stop him.

She'd do anything, no matter how immoral or cruel, to save her sister. _Anything._

Moments later, the woman was asleep, her body too weak anymore to keep her awake for long. The disease had truly been ravaging her and destroying her from the inside out. "Oh, Marigold." Moira caressed her sister's cheek, cradling her in her arms much as she had with her niece a minute before. "I love you, so much." Moira rubbed their foreheads together and sat in silence, just pleasuring in having her sister so close. She would save her.

The sound of the front door creaking open woke Moira, she wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep or when she'd fallen asleep but she was awake now. Gabriel standing at the doorway, a soft smile plastered on his face. "Moira, thanks for- everything." he said, kneeling in front of the women and brushing away a crazed curl from Marigold's face. "How has she been today?"

"She knows. She took it well enough, but wasn't too happy about it."

"Shit..." Gabriel was running a hand through her mess of hair that had fallen from it's bun and looked over to Moira, "We're so close..."

"She... she didn't say we had to stop." Moira gave a small laugh, "She fell asleep before we could really get in depth on it. Though I do think, after looking over the last set of data, that we've found what I need. But I'd like to do one more thing- I want to see if I can manipulate the cells to do something a little... different..."

"Different how?"

"Meet me in my lab later. I'll show you. How is Gerard?" Moira smiled at her brother-in-law who had, over this last week, looked as much defeated as his wife did.

"He's out of ICU. It'll be a long time before he is up and walking again." Gabriel moved to pick up his wife, Moira assisted him and getting her comfortably in his arms. Her hounds perked up from beside the couch and swarmed Gabriel protectively, walking on each side of him as he led her back into their bedroom.

Moira stood from the couch, stretching her arms, having gone numb from being stuck in such an awkward positon. She checked over the toddler, sleeping soundly in her crib and kicking lightly. "What a blessing."

"What about little miss, did she play nice?" Gabriel laughed, as he walked back into the hearth alone.

"As behaved as an angel." Moira smiled, "How is Jacques adjusting to college in the States?"

"He hates it," Gabriel laughed, "But it's best he doesn't see his mother like this, he'd be too distracted and lose his scholarships."

"He probably isn't fairing well with the anniversary coming up-"

"Moira." Gabriel was staring at the ground, the subject still touchy almost twenty years later.

"You're going to have to talk about what happened one day, Gabriel."

"Rigs and I discuss it enough." he growled, thumbing at his daughter's cheek as she peacefully slept.

"Yet you still cannot say the twin's names."

"Thank you for everything, Moira. I will see you at your lab later this evening." her queue to leave, and she nodded.

"I will see you this evening, Gabriel. Make sure to get some rest yourself."

"Of course." she saw herself out, Gabriel walking away from the crib and back towards the bedroom.

Moira smiled as she closed the door, opening the connection on her phone to the last call she'd made.

"You never mentioned you're related to the commander." was the first thing she heard and she growled at the phone. "This does change things..."

"It changes nothing. He's under my control."

"Are you so certain you aren't going to be soft on him or give him preferential treatment as a subject?

"If you're so concerned, why don't you ask Madame LaCroix how she feels? Or better yet ask _him?"_

A verbal shudder was heard on the other end of the connection, her 'guinea pig' was the only way she could get a reaction out of the omnic. He detested his presence and Moira enjoyed leaving him in his care, "I will not speak to that inhuman abomination you cherish so much. But the Commander isn't one of your toys, as that thing is. How can you be certain you have Reyes in your control?"

"Because I won't allow my sister to die. He's willing to die to save her and I'm willing to let him. My _toy_ would very easily do the same for her." she laughed, the omnic was quiet- he was piecing it together.

"...Commander Reyes' children were in an accident that left the youngest in critical, and assumedly killed the twins, but the twin boy's body was never found. Right after the incident... you came to obtain it... he.. he _isn't-"_

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to." she smiled to herself as she slid into her car, the omnic said nothing for a long time.

"You'll head to Italy this week then?" he finally said, making her smile widen. He was as smart as he put on.

"Yes, the boy will be taking over after, I assume?"

"Naturally. Unless you failed."

"Gabriel will believe the choices he makes are his own, even if he doesn't quite understand why he made them. We're doing the final injection tonight. Failure is implausible."

"We will see. Come collect your _nephew."_ Moira laughed as the connection cut out, driving off to her lab at the Blackwatch facility. Max could handle him for a few more hours.

She had a lot of work to do.

Two days had passed, Moira stood in her lab reviewing a set of charts. _Brilliant._ Absolutely brilliant.

"Moira." she heard her sister call, turning, she saw Marigold sitting in a wheelchair, Gabriel behind her with black circles under his eyes that looked nearly worse than his wife. She knew he'd been staying up for weeks now, between the explosion in Oslo, LaCroix's wife disappearing, the toddler, and his wife being so ill- he was a busy man with a lot of stress. This would help. She smiled, a genuine smile as always for her kid sister. She saw the hounds trailed close to Gabriel's legs and wagged their tails at the sight of Moira, she'd always been a fan of dogs and they seemed to rather like her.

"Riggy." she hugged her sister gently, her sister's arms too weak to lift quite that high to embrace her back. "I believe we've finished our research. No guinea pigs died for this research, I promise." she laughed, a couple people had, but she wasn't going to mention that. Criminals on death row were a glorious source of test subjects and her position provided her without any restrictions to them as long as she kept a low profile and only took one or two at a time.

"What exactly does that mean to me, Mo?" she coughed, Gabriel putting a hand on her shoulder to help balance her as she continued to cough until blood splattered against her hand. Gabe winced and his free hand gripped tight to the handle of the wheelchair. Moira grabbed her a cloth, wiping the blood away from Rig's hand and corners of her lips.

 _"That_ won't happen anymore, you won't be sick. You'll be able to go back to your life." she smiled, looking at her sister with all the love in her heart. "Gabriel and I cannot stand to see you like this anymore. I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner what we were doing, but medical science isn't so far advanced yet that it could have saved you and they would never allow me to use a living subject, even willing ones, to do these tests. We had to keep it a secret. Even from you. But we did it." she held up a vial. In that vial was all her sister needed to survive, to return to the woman she knew and loved.

"I--" she looked up to Gabriel and back a Moira, her breathing was labored more than usual today, but she seemed calm. Gabriel bent down and nuzzled into his wife's cheek. He whispered something to her in Spanish, which seemed to relax Marigold. Moira watched her sister intently, for any indication of her thoughts- finally the younger woman nodded her head. "Very well." Moira sprang to her sister, holding her close and kissing her other cheek, a tear falling down her cheek- she was going to save her. She wiped the single tear away and pulled away from her sister.

"It will be quick and easy, I assure you, Gabriel's body already did all the heavy lifting so you don't have to." she turned back to her lab station and grabbed a packaged syringe, "Gabriel, the bed, please?" she asked, pointing to the exam bed on her right, she heard the wheels move for a moment and then looked back to see he'd locked the wheelchair near the door and had lifted Rigs into his arms and was carrying her to the bed.

Such a dutiful spouse.

"When will she notice anything?" Gabriel asked, laying her down gently.

"It should start to take effect almost immediately, but it could take as much as six months for her to return to her normal self. I will likely do an injection every month to ensure success." Moira touched Gabriel's chest, "She'll be as strong as ever."

Gabriel moved to be closer to his wife and Moira followed him, a small metal cart floating beside her with all she needed. "I will ask one more thing, Riggy."

"What's that, Mo?"

"I have this," she lifted up the small black metal piece from the cart, "I can implant it, it will monitor how the cells react, and it has been programmed to enhance the reaction time of your eye as well." her sister looked at Gabriel for his opinion, he gave her no indication of his feelings. "It would have to be on your face, and I know you've done a good job of keeping that clear." she laughed, referring to her sister's neck-to-toe tattoos, the only visible alteration to her face had been from an experiment Moira had done to save Rig's eye after Moira had accidentally injured her, the result was the formation of a red 'star' like pattern in her iris and two faint black veins that shot from the corner of her right eye. Rigs only nodded once, enough for Moira.

The process was quick and painless, the implant a small black diamond in the center of Rig's forehead and the injection administered. Looking at her pad, readings already started from the implant. With a wide smile, she turned the pad to Gabriel and Marigold. "Success." she saw her sister smile for the first time in months, and Gabriel let out a deep sigh of relief.

"-I have to do this. Please. Just call me back when you get this. I love you, Rigs. I hope you're doing better today." Gabriel's voice cut off, he sounded so detached and hollow already. He got like that before a mission sometimes. Her loving husband turned into the super soldier again. The man who would drop everything to help a friend, became his sister's guinea pig to save her, a man to make a joke just for even the hint of a smile. A man with the warmest heart, became a cold killer again. She understood, this hit too close and too hard. A message needed to be sent.

Marigold let out a long sigh after listening over the message her husband had left for the second time, "I swear, Gabriel."

"What's the matter, Mrs. Reyes?" she nearly jumped, she hadn't heard the doctor come back. She'd been so distracted...

"Nothing, Doc. Nothing." Marigold smiled, "What'd you find?" she still kept up her standard doctor appointments, while she had complete faith in her sister's work, she still wanted to keep up to at least make sure her body wasn't changing too drastically. It had only been two days since the injection, and she was already walking again without assistance.

"You've made amazing progress, Mrs. Reyes. Levels have almost returned to normal, your iron was so low I was considering admitting you last time, but that is back to normal range. It's honestly impossible to believe how rapidly you've improved, whatever it is you've been doing, I highly recommend sticking with it and keeping with bi-weekly appointments to monitor your progress. If anything changes, don't hesitate. You were on a deathbed a few weeks ago, so take it easy."

"Brilliant!" Marigold stood from the bed and shook the doctors hand. "I'll see you in a couple weeks, Doc." with a wave she headed out the door, fumbling to dial Gabriel's number, searching for Lena in the waiting room, the woman waved to her and they headed for the exit together.

She listened patiently to the rings. If he answered, he truly wanted her opinion on the mission. If he didn't, then he had just been seeking her to validate his choice and was already going to do it.

The Blackwatch Commander's wife wasn't expecting an answer but she'd leave him a message. He wouldn't call her back but he would listen to it before they touched ground.

The ringing finally cut as she reached the car.

"You've reached Gabriel Reyes, sorry I missed you. Leave a message and I'll contact you as soon as I'm able. Beep-" his tone was much more jovial then compare to how he'd been lately. It almost sounded like a completely different person.

"Sorry I missed your call, mi sol. Judging by the fact you didn't answer, it really doesn't matter what I have to say about the mission. You cannot turn back. So, listen, I can only tell you this now;

Complete the mission. Come back alive. Bring back my sister, bring back our boys. _Come._ _Home."_ she hung up the phone and slid into the passenger seat.

"It's good to see you on your own feet again, Commandant." Lena cheered, starting up the car and heading them out of the parking lot. "When do you think I'll have you bossing us around again?" the two women laughed and Rigs sent a message to the babysitter before replying to Lena.

"I don't know if I will go back to active duty, Lena." she confessed, "I've been out of it for a long time..."

"It's only been a year, Riggy." Lena reminded her, originally the Commandant had taken off to give birth and spend a couple months with her newborn, then she never returned to work, nobody said anything but nobody needed to- they knew she was sick. They could see it anytime she came to HQ. Nobody held that against her, and everyone worked to make Commander Reyes' life a little easier so he could take care of her at home.

"You're right..." Gabriel growled out, he knew what was happening now. Moira had set them up, _'Come. Home.'_ his wife's words rang in his head. He needed Moira to get them the boys out and Rigs would never believe him if he came home without her sister and said she was a traitor. The man's body shot out the window from the force of the blast and Gabriel stood there, wanting to tremble in anger. How would he get them out without tipping her off? Jesse pulling him out of his trance. "Reyes! What did you do? This was not the plan!"

"Well... looks like we're going with plan B."

Behind the two men, Moira stood posed and a small smirk on her face, it seemed she had succeeded.


End file.
